CNRC 1042 Exam #1

Section I- Passage identification and analysis (40 %): Select 4 of the following passages and
provide a) the author b) the title of the work it is from c) a brief but detailed analysis of the
passage, its context, and how it connects to larger themes in the work.

1. No punishment they knew, no fear; they read

No penalties engraved on plates of bronze;
No suppliant throng with dread beheld their judge;
No judges had they then, but lived secure.
No pine had yet, on its high mountain felled,
Descended to the sea to find strange lands
Afar; men knew no shores except their own.
No battlements their cities yet embraced,
No trumpets straight, no horns of sinuous brass,
No swords, no helmet then–no need of arms;
The world untroubled lived in leisured ease.
a) Ovid
b) Metamorphoses
c) The text is describing the ages of mankind. In this section the Golden Age is described. A
time when there were no evils in the world, evils like war and disease. Man lived in
harmony.

2. He was amazed. He turned around, and right away he recognized

Pallas Athena. Her eyes shone with a terrible light. He spoke
to her words that went like arrows: “Why have you come,
daughter of Zeus who carries the goatskin fetish?
To see the insolence of Agamemnon, son of Atreus?
But I will tell you this, and I think it shall come
To pass–through his insolence he will quickly lose his life!”

Flashing-eyed Athena answered him: “I have come

from heaven to stop your anger, if I can persuade you.
White-armed Hera sent me, because she loves
And cares for both of you. So come, let go
Of this contention. Unhand your sword.”
a) Homer
b) Iliad
c) Athena was sent down by Hera to persuade Achilles to not kill Agamemnon. Achilles
wants to kill Agamemnon because he took Achilles' war prize, a beautiful woman. If
Achilles would have killed Agamemnon the Trojan War probably would have ended
since Agamemnon kind of started it.
3. Pallas Athene arranged all the adornment on her body. In her breast the Go-between, the
dog-killer, fashioned lie and wily pretences and a knavish nature by deep-thundering Zeus'
design; and he put in a voice, did the herald of the gods, and he named this woman Pandora,
Allgift, because all the dwellers on Olympus made her their gift-a calamity for men who live by
bread. When he had completed the precipitous, unmanageable trap, the father sent the renowned
dog-killer to Epimetheus taking the gift, swift messenger of the gods. Epimetheus gave no
thought to what Prometheus had told him: never to accept a gift from Olympian Zeus but to send
it back lest some affliction befall mortals: he accepted, and had the bane before he realized it.

4. As for the genitals, just as he first cut them off with his instrument of adamant
and threw them from the land into the surging sea, even so they were carried on the
waves for a long time. About them a white foam grew from the immortal flesh, and in it a
girl formed. First she approached holy Cythera, then from there she came to sea-girt Cyprus.
And out stepped a modest and beautiful goddess, and the grass began to grow all round beneath
her slender feet.
a) Hesiod
b) Theogony
c) This is the birth of Aphrodite. Kronos cuts of the genitals of his father Uranus and throws
them into the ocean. The ocean then foams and from the foam, Aphrodite is birthed. One
of the major themes from this section is the overthrowing of fathers by their sons and
wives/mothers.

5. They reached the temple steps and then, prostrate,

With timid lips both kissed the cold wet stone
And said: "If righteous prayers may move and soften
The Powers divine, may turn their wrath away,
Tell, holy Themis, by what art our race,
Now lost, may be restored: in thy great mercy
Hear and grant succour to a world submerged."
The goddess, pitying, gave her answer: "Leave
My temple, veil your heads, loosen your robes,
And cast behind you your great mother's bones."
a) Ovid
b) Metamorphoses
c) This passage is after Zeus punishes humanity with a flood, the only two survivors of the
flood are Deucalion and Pyrrha. They are given instructions on how to repopulate the
earth. They both interpret the instructions differently, but by interpreting what Themis
had told them to do they decide to throw stones behind them and the stones morph into
people.
Section II- Image identification (20%): Please describe the mythological episode depicted in
both image A and image B.

A.
The birth of Athena. Zeus had swallowed her mother and gave birth to her through his head.
B.
The creation of Pandora.

Section III- Short essay (40%): Please address one the following questions in a short essay
(about 6-8 paragraphs). Remember: your essay should be heavy on analysis and light on plot
summary.
Cite the authors' names and the titles of the works you use in your analysis.
1. Using details from the texts, discuss the creation of the world as represented in
Hesiod’s Theogony and Ovid’s Metamorphoses. How are their accounts of creation
similar? How are they different in fundamental ways? Are there stages? Is it driven
by god(s) or are they too part of a larger cosmic process? How, when, and why are
humans created? When was humanity closest to divinity?
2. With at least two examples from our course readings, explore the ways gods and
humans interact. How do humans try to communicate with gods and seek their favor?
How do humans try to discern divine will? How and when do gods intervene in
human affairs? How do gods appear to humans to help or punish them?
 1.)
In Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Hesiod’s Theogony, there are many differences and similarities
presented in their myths of creation. One myth that is similar in both works is that of the myth of
creation. Both tell us about the creation of the universe, world, sky, gods, and man. They both
state that the universe was created with chaos, although chaos in both cases is different, I will
cover that later.
There are many things that differ between Metamorphoses and Theogony. The first one begins
with creation by chaos. In Metamorphoses, Chaos was a heap or ununiformed mass, where the
elements of the universe were jumbled together in a “shapeless heap”. While in Theogony, Chaos
was the first thing to exist, described it as a void. From this “yawning void” came the beginning
of the universe. Another difference between the two is how things like the Earth, sun, sky, and
moon were created. In Hesiod’s creation myth, when Chaos gives birth to all the gods, he uses
them to explain how certain things came to be. On the other hand, in Ovid, he describes the
creation of the earth as a nameless god who goes on to separate the ground from the sky. Then
this nameless god goes on to populate the sky with gods and the Earth with humans.
In both Metamorphoses and Theogony, there are stages of mankind. According to Hesiod, there
are five stages of man, the Golden, Silver, Bronze, Heroes, and Iron Ages. In Hesiod’s Golden
Age, the man was formed by Kronos, and they lived like gods. Man did not have to work or
worry about things such as diseases or any wrongdoing. When Zeus overthrew the Titans, the
Golden Age ended. Then came the Silver Age, Zeus determined that this age of man was inferior
to gods. So, he made this age of man less than the gods in every way. Since the people would no
longer honor the gods, Zeus destroyed them. Next was the Bronze Age, the men of this age were
created from trees, so they were strong and warlike. This generation of man was connected to
war and weapons, they were destroyed by the flood. Then came the Age of Heroes, this time
period was better than the previous. Finally came the Iron Age, this age was the one Hesiod lived
in. His fellow man was created to be evil and selfish. Most evils were created during this time.
Overall, Hesiod’s stages of mankind degenerate over time. As time goes on, more and more evils
are created, and mankind goes from living with the gods to fighting one another.
While in Ovid there were only four ages, Golden, Silver, Bronze, and Iron. In Ovid’s Golden
Age, people lived in peace with nature. Whatever the people needed the Earth provided, there
were no evils. The Golden Age ended when Zeus sent Kronos to Tartarus along with all the other
Titans. Then came the Silver Age, Zeus created three periods, Spring, Summer, and Winter. The
creation of these periods destroyed the paradise that was in the Golden Age. Humans now had to
plan and save their supplies to survive, the Earth could no longer provide for them all year round.
Next came the Bronze Age, people during this age turned to darkness. Many wars between
groups of people began to sprout everywhere. Finally came the Iron Age, this age is when Ovid
says mankind lost all of its humanity. Families would turn on one another and people turned to
only care for their own personal gain.
In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, he has two ways that humans could have been created. The first one
is that the creator god seeded the Earth with a divine seed that sprouted into humans. The other
option is that when the Earth separated from the sky there were divine fragments that fell onto
the Earth and Prometheus molded all these pieces into images of the gods. While in Hesiod’s
Theogony man was created by Prometheus. He was given this task by Zeus to avoid
imprisonment. So Prometheus shaped his version of man out of the mud and gave the figure to
Athena. Athena then took the figure and breathed life into it. Prometheus' version of man was
made to walk on two legs and be able to look up at and praise the gods.
Humanity was the closest to the gods during the Golden age in both Ovid’s Metamorphoses and
Hesiod’s Theogony. During the Golden Age in both Metamorphoses and Theogony, it was
considered a period of peace, harmony, and prosperity. Humans did not have to work or fight for
resources whatever they needed the Earth would provide for them. People lived long and healthy
lives, and when they did die it was peaceful, and their spirits would live on. Gold in this sense
did not mean one of good fortune or money it was more of prosperity and living good and noble
lives.